It's all about the amenities for Chicago multifamily, we learned yesterday at theBisnowChicagoMultifamily Summit. More than 450 joined us to hear from our owner and developer panel, which included Waterton Associates co-founder and managing memberDavidSchwartz (above).New projects from Fifield Cos and AMLI are focused on killer amenities. Thank you, Greg Mutz, for alerting us to the growing popularity of pet spas for a young, high-income demographic ($80k-$100k/year). But David says he's heard there's no better place to meet girls than Presidential Towers old school laundry room in Chicago (for the $60k/year set). And its 24/7 Walmart Neighborhood Market (the first in Chicago) and 52k SF Fitness Formula Club are nothing to sneeze at. Unless there are girls around. Then a sneeze is unbecoming.

Just back from working on a 33-acre mixed-use project in Mumbai, HOK senior project designer David Genc delivered opening remarks. India's residential design is much farther ahead by necessity, mixing Western values with a more humane approach to building community, he says. His years of developing efficient, elegant, and cost-effective residential towers in Chicago can only be applied with a complete brain rewiring. Picture this: a destination neighborhood with apartment towers, retail, a central temple, a school, grocery stores, and commercial office space. Apartments in India have three to four times the amount of perimeter, like "stacking single family ranch homes up in the sky," David says. (Natural light and cross ventilation? We apartment dwellers forgot what that feels like.)